"Fod's sake," Nakajima said. "I’ve just arrived and you two are already at it. If you have so muergy to spare, then pour into practice!” WHAM! She struck the floor with the tip of her shinai! “Is that clear?"

  "Yes, ma'am..." Karen and elia quieted down and awkwardly gnced away. Unfortunately, this weak response was not enough for the coach.

  "I don't hear your voices!" WHAM! Nakajima struck the flain like a hardcore drillmaster! "Was I clear?"

  "Y-Yes, ma'am!" Karen and elia awkwardly raised their voices.

  Holy, rather than actually drilling in the coach’s message, this whole military-like routine only caused embarrassment for them. Though, that was effective in its own way.

  "Good." Nakajima nodded in satisfa. "Now, what are you waiting firls? Move on to the game!” WHAM! This stirred the entire club into a. They dropped whatever they were doing auro their seats.

  “You don't have even a sed to waste,” Nakajima lectured as usual. “You must py as many games as humanly possible if you want to have any ce of doing well in the regionals!” WHAM! “Uood?"

  "Yes, ma'am!" Everybody answered in unisoe hoard it felt. No matter how many times they had gohrough these drills, it never got aer…

  And so, the team moved on to the game.

  Just as Ms. Nakajima said, they had no time to waste oy in-fighting. The team was severely g in experiehough the team members were skilled to one degree or ahey did not have suffit experience as a team to make the most out of their individual talents.

  Not to mention, the club only had five members, so everybody had to participate in petitive games regardless of their skill level and experiehis was very different from other school clubs, where the first-string was generally posed of seniors with plenty of experiender their belt.

  Truly, on all fronts, the Valkyries were gging behind the petition. Therefore, they had to work harder than anybody in order to catch up.

  Unfortunately, even though Fiona was suffitly talented and motivated, the same did not necessarily apply to the others. After all, they were only middle schoolers. Most girls their age spent their free time idling about, posting photos on social media, ossiping about the test reality shows. They did not have a shred of petitiveness spirit.

  Fiona was well aware of the issue when she formed the club. Therefore, she went out of her way to hire a coach. There simply had to be an adult with authority in this club to put the girls in line.

  At first, Fiona requested Fernando Ruez to be the team's coaaturally, she offered a sary that respected the fact Mr. Ruez was viewed as a legendary coa this region.

  Ruez expressed i in taking on the job but there were two obstacles.

  First, Ruez was a man. St. Mary’s restigious all-girls school, so inviting a male coach did not sit right with the board. The number of male teachers in the school ractically zero and nobody was ied in increasing it.

  The other obvious obstacle was the flict of i. Having the same coach for two different teams from the same region was highly unusual.

  The administration of the regionals debated the topic at length. They ultimately decided to allow only istered team per coach, which meant the Valkyries would not be able to participate under Ruez’s lead.

  And so, the deal did not e to pass. But fortunately, Ruez found them a suitable substitute, one who easily sidestepped both obstacles.

  This other coach didate was a woman, so the school board had nothing against her. In addition, she was currently coag a high school team in this region but not a middle school one, so there was no flict of i.

  The woman iion was Ms. Kei Nakajima. She was an acquaintance of Ruez, as well as the coach of the Aces, the Cssmaeam of Hamilton High.

  The Aces were sidered the sed-stro high school team in the region, just a little behind the prestigious Venom from Ivy High. As such, Ms. Nakajima definitely had a ving resume.

  Furthermore, the woman seemed extremely motivated about the whole arra. It felt like she ersonally ied in the idea of making an all-girls team win the regionals. It was almost like she wao prove some kind of point.

  On top of that, Ms. Nakajima had a history of bitter rivalry with Venom, who was sidered just as untested as the Leopards in the high school se. In other words, the Aces were the “underdogs” in pariso none of that ever disced Nakajima from aiming for the top time and again.

  Since she khe struggle and bitterhat came with challenging the untested regional champions, she would do anything in her power to deliver her team to victory even against impossible odds. This was exactly the kind of attitude Fiona was looking for.

  And so, Ms. Nakajima became the Valkyries’ coach. This was an important step toward establishing a proper club. Frankly, Fiona might have given up oire ordeal if they could not secure a fitting coach.

  A newly formed club has practically no ce of catg up to the petition without a coach. Fiona believed. Especially, in ion, just having a coach already puts us leagues and bounds ahead of most teams.

  For some ungodly reason, it was rare for Cssmaeams in this region to have a coach. These clubs usually had a random teacher from school as a supervisor. Needless to say, that arbitrarily selected teacher rarely knew anything about the sport.

  A sports club without a coach was unheard of. Young athletes needed all the guidahey could get in order to properly develop as pyers.

  To Fiona's knowledge, no other sports club in the region had a situation like this. Soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis - every sport had a proper coach assigo it.

  On rare occasions, schools could not afford a fully-fledged coach for a particur sport, so they settled on having a PE teacher. Arras like this were far from ideal, but they were still leagues ahead of what Cssmancers clubs had over here.

  Therefore, just by having a coach, the Valkyries were already a step ahead of the petition. This allowed them to develop at a faster papared to other teams, which will hopefully make up for their ck of experience.

  Furthermore, Ms. Nakajima was very ied ieam’s success. She wahis underdog team to topple the ued regional champions. This challenge mirrored her ongoing war against Venom in the high school league. She bore a clear io kick the kings off their throne, regardless of whether it was in middle school or in high school.

  While the team pyed Ranked, Nakajima closely watched their performand provided timely critique, in her usual drillmaster-like tone.

  "elia, what do you think you’re doing?"

  "Huh? Going to farm the wolves, obviously."

  "And, you think this is a smart move when you have less than 30% HP remaining?"

  "Yeah, why not?" elia asked. "I exiled the Viking peasant from the ne by showing him my noble might, so now I'm free to farm in the jungle, am I not?"

  "It's a waste of time," Nakajima expined. "Your oppo recalled because he was below 20%, and you're about to hit the same threshold as well."

  "How is that a problem?” elia asked. “I just recall once my HP falls to these levels."

  "No, you should recall now. Do it."

  "What? But, my hard-earned ne advantage...!"

  "It os in your head," Nakajima argued. "There isn't that much differeween 20% and 30% in situations like this. In both cases, it’s too dangerous to be on the ne for too long unless you want to be ganked."

  "I see…” elia didn’t have anything smart to say to this, but she insisted on having her way regardless. “In that case, I recall after I take care of the wolves."

  "It'll take too long," Nakajima asserted. "It'd be ohing if you could clear the camp in a few seds. But, this is the early-game and you’re not the Jungler, so any camp is going to take you a while.”

  “That’s… true, I suppose…” elia twisted her lips in protest. In her head, she uood there was some logic to the coach's expnation, but in her heart, this felt terribly wrong.

  elia went through so many trials and tributions to finally kick that lousy peasant oppo out of the ne. Now, this entire nd beloo elia von Galen! At least, it should’ve.

  The owner of the nd was supposed to be free to do whatever she wanted in her domain. This included colleg taxes in the form of farming the enemy’s jungle camps.

  Ahe sultant was telling elia to abandon this nd prematurely without capitalizing on it at all! It was simply uable! But...

  "The master’s advice is on point," Fiona said. "You have to recall as soon as possible in order to return to the ne in time for the wave."

  "Precisely." Nakajima nodded. "Rather than being fixated on the current situation, imagine how your ne will look like half a minute from now."

  "Hmm..." elia knotted her brows as she tried to imagihat hypothetical future. Frankly, even though she restigious noble of many talents, this sort of forethinking was one area she didn't quite excel in.

  B-But, it's not like she couldn't do it, okay? When elia properly focused all her noble brain cells oask, her forethinking ability could reach the level of diviion!

  And so, following the coach's instrus, elia tried to think ahead of the current situation. She imagined what would happen if she were to clear the wolves first and then recall.

  Frankly, it was difficult. She could not properly estimate how much time it would take her to clear the camp, nor how long it would take her to return to the ne. But, as the yers of uainty piled up, she started to feel unsure about that dire.

  Will she make it in time to the ne? How many of her soldiers will still be standing by the time she gets there? Could it be she’d lose ne trol…!?

  No way. elia shook her head. Of course I will make it ba time. Some of my soldiers may perish by that point, but that won’t stop me from mounting a eback!

  “Ohoho!” elia ughed fidently. "I may arrive on the ne a bit te, but I shall smite dowruders and exile them from the ne once more!"

  "Arienai..." Nakajima sighed. "The fidence of this girl is off the charts."

  No matter how many times Nakajima stumbled upon this realization, it mao surprise her every time ahere was something ily wrong with how elia reasoned about most things. It seemed almost impossible to fix that part of her.

  "Listen and listen well," Nakajima said. "If you don’t recall right now, you’ll lose ne trol. By the time you return to the ne, your oppo will already be doh the wave. In fact, you might already be too te because you’ve wasted way too much time arguing on this point.”

  “Hmph. In that case, I’ll farm the wolves as I inally pnned and then face my oppo in the ne!” And so, the discussion came a full circle…

  This girl… Nakajima rubbed her temples. “I’m sure you uand that he’ll attack yht away to kick you out of the ne?”

  “Hmph. He’ll try.”

  “And he’ll most likely succeed. Just think about how hard you had to work to get him to 20% and how you dropped to 30% in the process. You’re evenly matched you two."

  “Evenly matched? Hmph. Maybe that was true for the old elia."

  "Excuse me?"

  "The elia from a few minutes agled a little against that lowly peasant,” she expined. “However, I'm no lohe same I was before! My noble powers have doubled sihe st time I dueled that oner!"

  "You make absolutely no sense," Nakajima asserted. "Pyers do not improve that fast in the middle of the game."

  "Hmph. Perhaps such growth is impossible for a on pyer, but it’s par for the course for a noble such as myself, ohoho!"

  … I'd really like to have a talk with whoever was responsible for her upbringing. Nakajima sighed in exhaustion. If we had Ranked for parenting, then her parents would be stu Bronze hell.

  Out of the numerous pupils Nakajima had coached over the years, elia roving to be the most difficult o. And, the worst part was how the girl actually had some talent for petitive gaming, it was just buried underh tless personality problems.

  Holy, if this club was bigger, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with her so muakajima admitted. I know it sounds awful, but I don’t have the time to babysit troublemakers. I’m here to make a winning team first and foremost.

  Ideally, Nakajima would’ve wao guide every pupil into being a star. This was the i mentality she started this job with. Unfortunately, she soon came to face reality.

  There were many students but only oeacher, so it was impossible for Nakajima to focus on everybody equally. Time didn’t wait for anybody and she was no exception.

  And so, over time, Nakajima learo prioritize certain students over others. She found the ones who showed more promise and focused on building a strong team around them. That was the only way for her to keep bringis and improve her standing in the school.

  So, a problem child like elia would have had to take a backseat in a bigger club. That whole “noble” rolepy she did, probably to overpensate for some inferiority plex, was too much of a headache. Nakajima was no psychotherapist so she wasn’t qualified to resolve plex issues like this.

  As, this club had only five members. Therefore, everybody art of the first-string. Everybody’s performance was critical for the team’s success.

  Nakajima swore t this newbie team far in the regionals and she refused to back down from the challenge. Slowly but surely, she will find a way to get through to that hickhead.

  "elia, listen. No matter how highly you think of your bat skills, there’s no way you test that Viking with 30% HP. It’s just not happening. Right, Fiona?"

  "Absolutely," Fiona agreed. "Judging by the data so far their bat skills are on about the same level. So, with the Viking at 100% HP, it will not even be a petition. Not to mention, he has access to his ultimate."

  “Exactly.” Nakajima nodded in approval. “Now THIS is how you should be analyzing the situation and thinking ahead.”

  “Grrr…” elia grimaced. She lost some of her obnoxious persistence Fiona stepped in.

  Seriously, this girl is a handful. Nakajima sighed. She wasn’t a fan of double-teaming a kid like this, but it was really hard to deal with this troublemaker otherwise. There was no choice but to resort to ugly measures against this blockhead.

  elia sort of idolized Fiona even if she refused to admit it. As such, Fiona’s words carried far more weight for her than any of Nakajima’s advice. even though the master was supposed to be the figure of authority here…

  Youhese days have no respect for their elders! Nakajima grumped. But anyway, this is not the time to worry about my pride. I have a lesson to teach this blockhead and she’s finally willing to listen, so I better get to it.

  “If you were to front the Viking,” Nakajima said. “He will either kill you or force you to recall in the middle of the ongoing wave. Just think about how much farm you’ll lose iher sario.”

  “Hmph. As I said, that peasant wouldn't possibly…” elia tried tue back but stopped herself once she noticed the fed-up expressions on Fiona and Nakajima’s faces. They were both looking at her like she was some lost cause. So rude!

  But, maybe they had a point. That Viking easant, but a peasant with a big HP lead over elia. Under such circumstances, even a noble such as her might struggle.

  Was the risk worth it? Perhaps not. As such, elia gave up uing any further and recalled to the base as advised.

  But, it’s not like she was running away, okay? Sometimes, it was a good idea to listen to the teacher’s advice, that’s all there was to it. elia could’ve easily stomped that Viking if she tried! Hmph.

  Upon seeing elia finally follow through, Nakajima nodded in satisfa. "Good. Better te than never." elia only scoffed in respohout saying anything.

  After that, Nakajima approached Fiona. "I’m gd you picked up quickly why I involved you in that versation. Nice follow-up."

  "Thank you, master."

  "Aside from that,” Nakajima tinued. “You immediately realized why my advice was on point, which is good. But, keep in mind that I won't be there to advise you like this during real games. As the shot-caller, you should’ve been the oo advise elia once she started heading into the jungle."

  "Yes, I uand." Fiona nodded. Frankly, this is asking for a lot when I have so many other things to keep track of. But, it is something I have to learn how to do.

  Ms. Nakajima delivered her advice to elia in a speedy mao prevent a disaster, but the tents of the advice were not that advanced. Ms. Nakajima merely sidered a few steps ahead, something Fiona had no problem doing herself once she got involved in the discussion. As such, the only problem here was Fiona’s attention span.

  Why was I not able to see it? Fiona wondered. I thought I was keeping a close eye oire map, yet this particur i escaped my attention.

  Irospect, the answer was simple. While that event was taking p Top, Fiona was on her way to gank Mid. As such, all her attention was trated on making the gank succeed. She had over attention to spare to any other the time.

  This is tough. Fiona thought. I am required to divide my attentioween my personal game pn and my responsibilities as a shot-caller. No matter whie I prioritize, the other will be ed to some extent.

  Finding the baweewo was key. Surely, Fiona would get better at it through practice, but the job will forever remain a challenge. After all, a fellow pie the board could not perfectly and the other pieces all the time.

  Ideally, there should be a sixth pyer whose entire job is to and. Somebody who observes the entire game from outside like Ms. Nakajima and provide timely instrus.

  As, for whatever reason, in MOBA games the strategist had to be one of the five pyers on the board. It ainfully suboptimal.

  I know that Cato is not a fan of this either. Fiona thought. But, what about Yuel Fermond? Does he also find this arra problematic? Or, could it be this is somehow to his liking...?

  Anything ossible when it came to that man. He was the type of pyer whose thought process was sometimes alien to the norm.

  Thinking of it, a setup like this might be his pystyle. Fiona reason. The harder it is for the enemy shot-caller to trol everything, the more weakhere are for Yuel to exploit.

  The maire pystyle revolved around striking the oppo’s ots, Fiona learned as much from analyzing his chess history, as well as his father’s. A pystyle like that was far more effective in sports like Cssmahan in chess.

  For starters, Cssmancers had five oppos to deal with, which meant five times more potential weako discover. Yuel could simply focus on one weak link in the enemy’s formation and bully them to oblivion.

  Furthermore, the enemy’s shot-caller was distracted by default, leading to potentially sloppy team formations that could be exploited. On top of that, even the best ander could never and humans as fwlessly as chess pieces. Poor execution of orders and insubordination like elia’s were like treats for Yuel Fermond.

  In a real game, if I failed to advise elia in that situation, I am certain Yuel would have taken advantage of it. So, I must be more vigint about such things.

  Fortunately, this time around, Ms. Nakajima was there to tell elia to recall. Despite how long it took elia to ultimately follow the order, the worst-case sario was averted.

  ime, Fiona should be the oo issue that kind of timely advice, even if her instrus happen to arrive a little te. Better te than never in cases like these.

  So, after making a few mental notes following this i, Fiona reinforced her map awareness. She aimed to keep track of what all her teammates were doing to advise them against mistakes. As, it was easier said than done...

  DarkestCymore